Playing SWG again today, still nee and adjusting to game. So combat comes about and you start dealing damage and the medic wants to run in in engaged combat anf heal! heal! Once per ENCOUNTER! Not once per day, or new opponent or whatever. I couldnt find healing on tbe fly, stimpack? As he wanted medkit in combat. Starting to turn me off to running, they want to make it DnDish with mechanics or style. Also is death GM descretion? Or based on minion, group, rival nemisis? It can seem to hard to die or live basd on GMs choice on threshold limits or hit by X.

You heal once per encounter with a Medicine check. Stimpacks have their limitations of 5 per day. There are obviously Talents and gear to buff the Medicine check spread through the various books. Death is as strict or narrative as any GM wants it in any RPG in my experience.

Stimpacks are your friend for keeping you alive in combat. medics and surgeons get various bonuses to help out with healing and using stimpacks.

Note that combat is deadly , a few blaster hits can easily kill you. Using the medicine skill is not something you easily do in combat, it takes to time.

You want to minimise the damage you take in combat by using cover, if the Gm says there is none, then spend a destiny point to insert it into the narrative. Better still avoid combat where possible.

This is not DnD and it can be a bit of shock to the system for those that come to the game with that mindset. That being said its not a game for everyone.

I would recommend you listen to order 66 podcast, episode 10 triunphant despair which helps with the dice and episode 24 which deals with switching from the d20 mindset to the narrative system.

Also if the GM is throwing a combat encounter at every turn, or the players turn it that way then its being done wrong. If you have a beginner game then this should at least explain that. If the GM is making the adventure themselves from the core book, then it might be worthwhile downloading the rebels beginner game and playing it through as it will take you step by step through a game less focused on combat.

Feel free to ask questions about the system here, you will not be short for answers and welcome to the forums.

Note that combat is deadly , a few blaster hits can easily kill you. Using the medicine skill is not something you easily do in combat, it takes to time.

Plus if the enemy sees someone trying revive combatants, it's not unreasonable to target the medic. Bring them down, and the previous folks stay down.

Plus fear checks aplenty. Blaster bolts wizzing over head and grenades going off beside you will test most men.

Thank you for the replies, helps me run my game and feel better balance or story feel and meta.

Note that combat is deadly , a few blaster hits can easily kill you. Using the medicine skill is not something you easily do in combat, it takes to time.

Combat isn't really all that deadly in these games. It's pretty easy to be taken out of a fight, but actually dying takes a really bad critical injury roll.

Also reaching double your wound threshold has been confirmed by the devs as being death as well. This is a GM call though, I apply that across the board.

Also reaching double your wound threshold has been confirmed by the devs as being death as well. This is a GM call though, I apply that across the board.

I don't think this is true. Can you link to the statement?

Order 66 podcast so I cant link it, as I said though its still a GM call though.

Also reaching double your wound threshold has been confirmed by the devs as being death as well. This is a GM call though, I apply that across the board.

I've never heard that. You just stop tracking wounds at double threshold, it's not death.

It was a question they had asked one of the devs in the order66 podcast, it was referenced I a recent q&a segment, and Ive adopted it since then myself. Also to the OP a crit roll over 140 is death also (talents and weapon qualities can add cumulative +10 to the roll and also each previous crit also adds to the roll by +10).

It was a question they had asked one of the devs in the order66 podcast, it was referenced I a recent q&a segment, and Ive adopted it since then myself. Also to the OP a crit roll over 140 is death also (talents and weapon qualities can add cumulative +10 to the roll and also each previous crit also adds to the roll by +10).

I recall that, but it wasn't a Dev ruling, just an opinion, and there's a flaw with it big enough to fly a star cruiser through.

They were talking about how at personal-scale-only combat if you take that much damage you're probably talking a lot of hits and damage to a rather stupid level, and if the GM wanted to say you were dead it wasn't totally weird sounding.

The Flaw:

If you take a hit from a vehicular scale weapon... you're gonna be at x2WT. This is probably a tad rare, so it's no wonder they weren't thinking about it, but if you do the x2WT=Death thing, that makes a single attack from a vehicle able to easily kill any player or even a group of players when you talk blast and auto fire.

By RAW, NPCs can be kill when their WT is exceeded and the GM says they are dead (Minions especially will be dead more than not). If the NPC is a Rival or Nemesis, the GM has the option to use normal Wound rules, requiring a Dead Crit result.

Players, will, unless the GM is doing something really strange, need a Dead Crit result to be D-E-D dead.

The reason: Aside form being nice (it stinks to spend forever making a new character just to get greased) Star Wars, along with other semi-realistic Sci-Fi setting, generally treat dead as dead. So staying alive is more important because except in extreme circumstances, once you die you usually stay that way. By comparison, D&D being a fantasy setting with fantasy themes, makes death (at least among big gorram hero types) a far more temporary situation because among the fantasy genre resurrection is easier to attain with wizardry, divine intervention, and other options being more readily available.

Note that combat is deadly , a few blaster hits can easily kill you. Using the medicine skill is not something you easily do in combat, it takes to time.

Yeah, it takes a whole round, which can be a minute or an hour, depending on the situation. ;-)

Either way, it is the one action you get on your turn in the round.

Sorry perhaps I didn't explain that too well, doing the check is easy enough, but then taking the time to disengage from one player, (one maneuver), move to another area in short range (one maneuver) , then engage with another friendly (one maneuver) means that you would only be healing someone every 2nd round. So a medic moving in to heal someone as opposed to them using a stimpack on themselves takes time to do , doing it multiple times even more so. So its more effective even then for eachplayer to use thier own stimpacks.

Medicine only heals on a successful roll also , and then only the amount of successes , until they get a reasonable medicine level(or gain enough bonus from talents) they aren't beating stimpacks, stimpacks have the bonus of being able to be used by anyone, and only cost a maneuver (or 2 if you have to draw them, combat pouches are your friend here, from Dangerous Covenants)

By RAW, NPCs can be kill when their WT is exceeded and the GM says they are dead (Minions especially will be dead more than not). If the NPC is a Rival or Nemesis, the GM has the option to use normal Wound rules, requiring a Dead Crit result.

Players, will, unless the GM is doing something really strange, need a Dead Crit result to be D-E-D dead.

The reason: Aside form being nice (it stinks to spend forever making a new character just to get greased) Star Wars, along with other semi-realistic Sci-Fi setting, generally treat dead as dead. So staying alive is more important because except in extreme circumstances, once you die you usually stay that way. By comparison, D&D being a fantasy setting with fantasy themes, makes death (at least among big gorram hero types) a far more temporary situation because among the fantasy genre resurrection is easier to attain with wizardry, divine intervention, and other options being more readily available.

This, so much. This isn't Gygax-style D&D, where you roll up a dozen disposable characters and work your way through them.

Death is in the GM's hands for a reason. Combat is quite dangerous and it's not hard to get taken out by a few hits. But unless you're unlucky you won't be dead. This plays to the tropes of pulp adventures by having the hero captured and having to escape, or rescued, or anything else you see in the movies. PCs really only tend to die for plot reasons. NPCs can be dead or unconscious as the GM wishes, and suits the needs of the plot (so there's no need to go around afterwards and cut the throats and steal the stuff of every last goon or stormtrooper you drop).

In general, the healing rules are quite specific and there's a hard cap on what stimpacks can do for you. The movies have interludes between fights and this isn't a Pathfinder-type game where you're supposed to be in endless combat encounters. Battles are supposed to be quick, exciting and cinematic. If you don't feel like you're in a movie scene, you're doing it wrong. (Honestly, would an audience still be watching a movie twenty rounds into a 4E style boss fight?) Having the enemy withdraw, or the PCs run away, is very fitting, because we see that in every Star Wars or Indiana Jones movie. Or use the 'One Roll Conflict Resolution' rule to bring the fight to a suitably cinematic conclusion.

The 'dead at double wound threshold' is just someone's house rule, and not a great one in my opinion. I personally rule that planetary scale weapons cannot hit lone individuals, only fortifications, ships, vehicles, buildings etc - unless the PC really is jumping up and down in front of a big gun, demanding they 'take their best shot'. In the films, a PC in that situation is usually just caught on the edge of the blast and knocked out.

It can be a paradigm shift for players used to Pathfinder, later editions of D&D and these games. You really need to explain that this isn't a first-person shooter or a dungeon crawl, it's a narrative, cinematic game where the action is meant to play out like a Star Wars, superhero or pulp action movie. Watch 'Pirates of the Caribbean' or 'Guardians of the Galaxy' with the players and tell them that's what your battles should look like.

Note that combat is deadly , a few blaster hits can easily kill you. Using the medicine skill is not something you easily do in combat, it takes to time.

A few blaster bolts can take you down, but it’s actually pretty hard to properly and fully die in this game. You have to take a Critical Hit in the 140+ range in order for that to happen, unless the GM is being particularly diabolical and decides he wants to kill you in some way that doesn’t involve a crit.

In this game, Strain damage is just that — mental stress. But take enough Strain damage, and you can be left a gibbering idiot in the corner and not able to be able to do anything effective in combat. You can recover strain at the end of the encounter, and there are some talents that allow you to recover strain during combat. But that’s about it.

Wound damage is minor nicks and scrapes and bruises, but no broken bones or anything serious. But take enough Wound damage, and you can be left unconscious from all the pain, etc…. Stimpacks can help with the pain and minor injuries, but they get less and less effective as you use them.

Critical Hits are where we start getting into real serious damage, like broken bones, limbs severed, being blinded, or being so badly injured that you’re bleeding out and will die at the end of the next round if someone can’t perform a proper Medicine check and save your life. Once you’ve taken a critical hit, you’ll probably want to get into a Bacta Tank in order to accelerate your healing and your ability to try to get critical hits cured.

(Honestly, would an audience still be watching a movie twenty rounds into a 4E style boss fight?)

Are we watching a Micheal Bay movie?

(Honestly, would an audience still be watching a movie twenty rounds into a 4E style boss fight?)

Are we watching a Micheal Bay movie?

I hope so as Michael back is good at blowing things up in an amusing way, whatever else he may be.

If your 4E style boss fights were boring and "unwatchable" then that sounds like an issue with that group. I never found 4E's combat to be that bad.

I hope so as Michael back is good at blowing things up in an amusing way, whatever else he may be.

Warning! Warning! Thread going off topic.

Depends - are we talking The Rock and Armageddon era Bay or are we talking Transformers Bay? One is entertaining and fun despite being as stupid as a sack of hammers. The other is a relentlessly overlong slog through unidentifiable robots in a mess of editing and writing, with only slow and lingering shots on Megan Fox's ass being a bright point amongst the disaster.

One I will gleefully watch as a guilty pleasure. The other, I'll avoid like the Black Death.

Personally, I don't require an additional maneuver to disengage if you are only engaged with a friendly. Maybe to get close to them (as it represents sliding in next to them, assessing their wounds, and getting your kit ready) but the rationale for it being a maneuver to leave engaged with an enemy is the same rationale behind opportunity attacks in other games - as someone who almost did martial arts for a living, I can say it's a well-reasoned rule... but really only if the person or object you're disengaging with is actually a threat to you. After all, if you go in to hug a relative or shake a hand at work, do you fuss over carefully leaving the space around them in a safe way, or do you walk away about as casually as you would in an empty hall-way?

That's my thought, at least. As for death being deadly... well, everyone else is right, it's exceedingly hard to kill players. (Well, it's not, but only if you're trying to be an asshat.) That said, my players still try to avoid exceeding WT like the plague. I might have to almost TPK them and have it not be the end of the world before they start treating it right. They're like that with all their resources, though. We were months in before they felt comfortable flipping Destiny Points, and it basically took a promise from me that I was committed to providing a good balance and a good time... yes, if they used them up it would mean I would use mine more often, but ultimately they'd get them back. It was less about "running out of Destiny Points" and more "is it worth the GM being more likely to spend one in the future?", which is a different ballgame.

That all said, I don't think there's anything wrong with a combat heavy game, so long as it's done right and that's what the players want. This is the EotE forum and not the AoR, so I suppose the ethos is different here, but the system works just fine if you have 2-3 combat encounters a session, even more if the party is committed to being able to handle them. Of course, the salient point remains that even in those games there should be reasonable downtime between engagements so it is still not a dungeon crawl. Maybe you've infiltrated an [insert violent baddie group here] outpost and the party has decided to fight their way through, but there should be opportunities for a breather and some medic stabilization. Even if there isn't a lot of down time to find a bacta tank, maybe the next session should be re-arming, gathering info, jockeying for position, and recovering. It can be done, but maybe that's just my opinion because I like combat and the way it works in this system. You certainly aren't obligated to avoid combat as a matter of course... unless, of course, that's the story you've set up, in which case, obviously play to the themes you chose/agreed to.

(Honestly, would an audience still be watching a movie twenty rounds into a 4E style boss fight?)

Are we watching a Micheal Bay movie?

I hope so as Michael back is good at blowing things up in an amusing way, whatever else he may be.

If your 4E style boss fights were boring and "unwatchable" then that sounds like an issue with that group. I never found 4E's combat to be that bad.

Incompatible audience detected ^-^

You can enjoy your crappy Michael Bay movie explosions and your DnD sessions. I say away from both, because it makes me want to vomit. But if you enjoy it, enjoy it. I stay away from it.

Still I totally will admit that combat can be entertaining in any system, simply because combat can be done narrative in any system anyway. FFG is just telling the stories of your dice, while in literally any other system you still narrate the story of your actions and the dice tell you just if those stories come to a successful ending or fai miserability. Basically in FFG you roll first and that narrative explain what you are doing, while in other system you narrate your action first and hang in the middle of it when rolling that dice to finish that story. Which leads to often to spectacular failures and wicked cool tries which end miserable. Very hilarious, but not very hollywood.

Desktop... I'd have "liked" that twice if it'd let me

Or even Desslok.... **** my autocorrect to hell, I could spell so much better before they invented it

I too had trouble getting it across to my players that this game is probably one of the least deadly you could possibly play.

BUT

In regards to death on double WT: I've been contemplating to rule death if you take more than double your WT in a single hit, as in, being blasted by a vehicle grade weapon.

If a tank shell dead on hits you there is not much going to be left afterwards. Sure, depending on the vehicle in question it's going to be difficult to hit a silhouette 1 target but not impossible.

This came to mind when my PCs on more than one occasion managed to get the Nemesis in front their YT-1300 turret laser... You can't really reasonably say that they are still alive when they eat 60 damage.

I'm still not sure wether or not to go ahead with this, but it seems reasonable. Although it can bring on PC death very quickly if you're unlucky wich kind of spits in the face of the rest of the damage mechanics.

It would also deter PCs to ever interact with vehicles on a personal scale, wich may make things less interesting overall.